


How the Hale/Stilinski Bunch Happened

by peacensafety



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, nothing but fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-02
Updated: 2012-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-20 03:19:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/580723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacensafety/pseuds/peacensafety
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles returns home after his wife dies in New York. His kids are demon spawn, but not in the literal sense.</p><p>Fortunately, the son of his dad's old friends knows exactly what that's like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How the Hale/Stilinski Bunch Happened

**Author's Note:**

> I needed fluff. Don't worry, I'll write more from my other stories later, and this is only a one-shot, so... it had to get out of my head. If you're not parents, you probably think that Stiles and Derek are really horrible people... but if you are parents, you've dealt with this, too. Inspired by my own son.

Stiles balances his wallet on his thigh, trying to keep ahold of Scott’s hand as he gets the debit card out of its clear plastic holder thingy. Allison is already wailing a protest against the straps that are holding her to the seat in the shopping cart, and Boyd sits at the other end of it trying to touch the ground. 

“Just a moment, Scott,” Stiles tries not to twist his son’s arm too much as he contorts himself like a limp noodle, trying to reach the candy that some horrible sales person had realized would be at the perfect reach for five-year-old fingers. 

“Daddy,” Scott protests, “Daddy, I NEED it, I NEEEEEED it!” Scott’s voice is a high pitched nail scraping down the glass side of Stiles’s eardrum.

“C’mon Scott, I’m making oatmeal cookies tonight,” Stiles tries bargaining. Yeah, it might be the one thing that every parent is told not to do, but Stiles isn’t above bribery and blackmail.

“Oatmeal cookies are GROOOOSSSSSS!” Scott screams, obviously in serious need of his nap. Stiles takes a moment to briefly wonder if his dad had kept the twins up all afternoon while Boyd was at school.

“Scott, indoor voice,” Stiles says, handing the annoyed looking teenage cashier his card, finally.

“Stiles?” a woman’s voice asks him.

Stiles turns around to stare into the amazing blue-green-gold eyes of his boss, Mrs. Hale. He gives her a sheepish grin, “Oh, hello Mrs. Hale,” he greets her. 

“Are these your children then?” Mrs. Hale has some sort of magical ability to ignore the twins screeching at the top of their lungs, and Stiles loves her a little bit for the fact that she doesn’t even blink to see Boyd sprawled out like a dead thing in his shopping cart.

“Do I have to claim them?” Stiles grins a little weakly at her.

“They’re lovely,” Mrs. Hale says, in that way that only a woman who has raised horrid children of her own can accomplish.

“They can be, but they took their monster pills today,” Stiles sighs, wishing that there was something he could do to make this a little less terrible as a first impression that his boss has of him outside of work. 

Mrs. Hale tries not to laugh. “You should see my grandchildren in the candy aisle. I always go to register 7, because all they have is magazines.”

Stiles smiles, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

The cashier hands the card back to Stiles and indicates that he needs to put his code in. Allison stops screeching long enough to demand that she be allowed to punch the numbers, so Stiles lets her lean over to do it.

“You should bring them over to our house this Friday. We’re having a cook-out, and I’m sure my monsters would love playing with yours,” Mrs. Hale invites him.

“Do I need earplugs?” Stiles asks.

“Oh, we have a big yard. They can scream their heads off and we can hide in the kitchen and make my brother watch them. Peter is good at corralling The Short Ones into games and organized mischief.”

Stiles grins. “I think I might take you up on that. Should I bring anything?”

“Bring your dad, I’m sure he’d like a break, too. My husband hasn’t seen him since the four of you moved in with him.”

Stiles nods his head. “Sure, Mrs. Hale. What time on Friday?”

“Come over at five,” she tells him, piling her groceries on the belt from her cart. “Feel free to feed the kids lots of sugar before you come over, I so love torturing my brother-in-law. Derek and Laura always leave a bag of candy out right where their kids can find it right before he comes over.”

Stiles grins. He doesn’t really remember Derek Hale, because Mrs. Hale’s son was eight grades above him in school, but he likes the idea of torturing family members. Mostly because his kids torture him every day and he wants to see someone else going through the same sort of punishment.

Stiles mentions the invitation to his dad over supper that night. His dad smiles a little, mentions that he misses watching the game with Mr. Hale every Sunday like he used to do, and Stiles lets himself feel a little guilty. He knows that his dad had no problem with Stiles carting the kids and himself back home after his wife died, knows his dad wishes he could have moved back in with Stiles’s grandparents after his own mother had died and that’s why he had offered; but he does know that his dad wouldn’t trade the opportunity to have his family nearby where he wouldn’t worry anywhere near as much as he would have if Stiles had stayed in New York after Mary had been killed.

Stiles had left behind a good career as an editor, and although his publishing house still sent him manuscripts to work on all the way in California for the occasional extra paycheck, Stiles had to content himself with the fact that his dad had picked him up a pretty sweet job at The Beacon, the local newspaper that Mrs. Hale had owned and inherited from her mother before her. Granted, Stiles was now her top investigative reporter and part-time photographer, but it was a good job, and jobs were hard to come by in this economy. 

“How many grandkids does Mrs. Hale have, anyway?” Stiles asks, thinking that the way she had been talking about them they might have numbered in the millions, and Stiles was pretty sure that Mrs. Hale had only had two kids.

“Her son has three and her daughter has one, I think,” Johnny tells him.

Stiles nods. “How old are they?”

“Derek’s kids, Jackson, Isaac, and Erica, I think they’re eight, seven, and five,” Johnny helps himself to some more sweet potato fries. “Laura’s daughter Lydia is six, I believe.” 

Boyd glares. “I’m seven,” he says. “I want to be the oldest.”

“You’ll just have to settle for being the best,” Stiles tells his son. It didn’t matter that he was Mary’s son from her first relationship, Stiles had adopted him and that was that. 

Boyd pouts. “I don’t want to go.”

“Hey,” Stiles says, as he pulls Boyd into his lap and ignores the fact that the twins decided at that moment in time to become crazy jealous children, “I think that you’ll be good friends with the Hale kids. Your grandma used to be very good friends with their grandma, and your grandpas are still best friends.”

“Isaac Hale is in my class with me at school,” Boyd says. “He said that Jackson was the worst big brother in the world, and that I should be his big brother.”

“Well then, see?” Stiles says with a smile on his face, “You have to go over so that you can defend him from his mean ‘ol big brother.”

Boyd smiles, crushing the thick curls on top of his head into Stiles’s chest. “Okay,” he capitualates easily, and Stiles wonders how tired his poor kid is. He makes room on his lap for his twins to come snuggle, too, upset that their big brother had been upset and wanting their daddy’s lap for themselves. 

“Maybe we should shove them into their beds?” his dad whispers to him, and Stiles readily agrees. 

His dad reaches over to pull Allison into his arms, and Stiles takes the boys upstairs to his old room. His dad tricks Allison into the bath and her pajamas, and then Stiles takes the boys in for their turn. He washes Scott’s hair and conditions Boyd’s, drying Scott off with a towel and rubbing cream into Boyd’s skin so it doesn’t get dusty. He gives Scott’s head a hopeless brushing and picks gently at Boyd’s curls, and then he puts them into their bunkbeds, knowing that it’s worthless to put Scott on the top because he’ll just crawl down into Boyd’s bed before morning hits. He reads his boys a story and then switches rooms with his dad to say prayers with Allison, although he isn’t sure that he believes in God anymore after taking away not only his mother and the mother of his children. It isn’t fair that both women had been murdered in almost exactly the same way, unsolved, bloody, nightmarish. 

Stiles makes himself think of something else as he kisses his daughter’s sleepy head. 

Friday at work, Stiles almost forgets about the cook-out, but Mrs. Hale reminds him right before he leaves to pick Boyd up at school. His son is upset that some kid had told him that Stiles couldn’t be his real dad ‘cause of their skin color and Stiles tells Boyd that the kid is just jealous because he got stuck with his parents and Stiles chose to be Boyd’s dad ‘cause he loved him more than anything else in the entire world. Boyd seems mollified by this explanation, and he grows silent in the car with a little happy smile on his face, and all is right with Stiles’s world. 

Stiles can’t actually go to a dinner someplace where he is a member of a five person family who isn’t on the normal guest list without contributing anything, so he loads up the minivan with some freshly baked bread, avocado casserole, and black bean soup before strapping the twins into their car seats and making sure that Boyd’s seat belt in the center captain’s chair is securely fastened. He makes sure that Scott has one of his action figures so that he doesn’t torture Allison all the way to the Hale house, and listens as his dad asks Boyd about first grade. 

As Stiles listens to the familiar diatribe about cafeteria food, he pulls up into the Hale’s long driveway. He didn’t really remember coming to the old mansion out in the woods with his mom when he was little, but it feels familiar to him in a good way. It almost feels like a second home, and Stiles thinks for a little while that it’s odd that it would feel that way. 

He ignores it, and makes his dad carry in the soup as he grabs the casserole, handing Boyd the loaves of bread and he marches his little family up to the front porch.

The woman who answers the door is probably twelve years older than he is, but Stiles can’t deny that she is a beauty. She looks exactly like Mrs. Hale, and Stiles figures that his boss must have been a total hottie back in the day because her daughter has to turn heads on a daily basis. “Laura,” Johnny greets the woman, who smiles at Stiles’s dad in a way that surprises him a little. 

“Hey Sherriff,” Laura greets him, and then turns to bestow that smile on Stiles. “Stiles, I haven’t seen you in… has to have been twenty years? You were four at the time, I think.”

Stiles smiles at her. “I cut my hair,” he says, a little shy in front of her.

Laura smirks at him, and then leans down to his children. “You are adorable,” she says with a smile, and Stiles decides he likes the woman. He’s easy that way, like his children and anyone can earn automatic approval.

Allison reaches out and touches Laura’s hair. “You’re pretty,” she says. 

“You are too,” Laura accepts the child’s compliment with ease. “I think you’re my daughter’s age. Would you like to meet her?”

“Yes please,” Allison smiles shyly. Stiles knows that shyness will last in his children for about five minutes, and then they’ll be holy screaming terrors again.

Laura invites them into the house, and Stiles and his dad and Boyd carry the food into the kitchen, where there’s a mad scramble as children look around and stare at each other as if they had never seen another child in their life.

Boyd and Isaac break the strange stalemate that is going on between the Stilinski and Hale clans. 

“Hi Boyd!” Isaac says, cheerfully. Stiles thinks that they might get along so well because their curls are about the same size, if not the same color. They could break the world with their curl power, he snorts to himself a little. 

“Hi Isaac!” Boyd smiles back.

“We have candy!” Isaac announces. “Do you want some?”

Stiles sneaks a look at his boss, who smirks over at him with the knowing look in her eyes. “Can we daddy?” Scott looks up at Stiles like he holds the world in his hands and he might not share with them.

“Sure, but only when we’re at the Hale house, okay?” Stiles tells his son. “And no sneaking grandpa any pieces of candy, okay?”

Scott smiles genuinely and innocently at Stiles, and Stiles tries not to groan because he knows that look on his son’s face. Instead of saying anything to his son, he turns to glare at his dad. 

“What?” his dad asks him.

“Now y’all go on out back with the other men,” Mrs. Hale says as she hands Stiles and his dad both a beer. “We have kitchen things to do, and Peter will be here any minute to take care of the kids. Laura and I can handle them until then.”

Laura laughs as she waves Stiles and his dad out back.

“That’s kind of weird,” Stiles says to his dad. “I didn’t think that the Hales were the type that kept their women in the kitchen.”

“I don’t really think that it’s keeping their women in the kitchen so much as keeping their men out of it,” Johnny tells his son. “I can’t tell you how many 911 calls I’ve gotten when Carl or Derek have been left in the kitchen on their own. Peter tends to help out though.”

“I can do KP,” Stiles says, “I’m not above peeling potatoes or whatever.”

“I think Cheryl uses this time to bond with her daughter,” Johnny says before sliding the back door open to step out on the deck. “Carl,” his dad greets an older guy who still looks great for his age, but Stiles is distracted by the sight of Derek.

Stiles didn’t really remember Derek from being four years old at the time, but he never guessed that twelve year old boy would have turned out like this. He’s quite possibly the hottest guy Stiles has ever seen, and Stiles trips on the threshold out to the back porch. He’s experienced enough in his klutziness to catch himself, but he knows his face is tomato red when he looks to see if his dad had noticed.

Now, it isn’t like Johnny didn’t know his son was bisexual, but Stiles thinks that he needs to go over that term again with his dad because a little bit of a warning would have been appreciated. The look his dad sneaks him though tells Stiles all he needs to know; his dad knew how Stiles was going to react and didn’t tell him so that he could mock him mercilessly for hours about it afterwards.

Stiles is going to feed his dad sprouts with every meal for the next month. 

“Derek, this is my son, Stiles,” Johnny introduces him. “You haven’t seen him in years, have you?”

“No,” Derek says, holding out a hand to Stiles with a small smile on his face. Stiles knows that smile, it’s a ‘hey, our parents are friends, so even though we don’t know each other let’s play nice for them’ smile, and Stiles returns it with what he hopes is one of his own. He takes Derek’s hand, and is briefly distracted by the static electricity that builds up between both of them and sparks. When he looks back up into Derek’s face, Derek is no longer smiling but studying Stiles like he’s some sort of exotic species. 

“Must have picked up some static somewhere,” Stiles says sheepishly, for some reason feeling guilty about shocking Derek with a little discharge. And why did his brain have to go there? 

“So Stiles, how do you like the move back to Beacon Hills from the city?” Carl asks him, turning what looks like steak over on the grill.

“It’s a nice change of pace,” Stiles says, turning his back on Derek so that he can address the man’s father. “I have to get used to everyone knowing my name again, instead of floating in seas of anonymity like I’m used to doing.”

“It’s better for your kids,” Carl says, turning to study Stiles.

“I hope it will be,” Stiles says, hoping his worry doesn’t sound too strongly. “Boyd had to leave his other father, and while we didn’t see him a lot it’s still a tough thing to do to a kid.”

“It isn’t going to get better when Boyd’s dad has to go back to Jamaica,” Stiles’s dad says. “It won’t be much different from that.”

Stiles shrugs. “Still.” Boyd’s dad simply wasn’t interested in being a father, and Stiles never minded when the man came over to bring his son a present from his grandparents in Jamaica. Stiles had taken the kids to spend time with Boyd’s grandparents on the island, and he would probably do it again in the future. There was no bad blood between them, it was just the way that the cards had fallen. They didn’t resent Stiles’s presence in Boyd’s life, and they had only been supportive after Mary had died. They wanted what was best for their son and grandson, and they all agreed that Stiles was a better father than Michael Boyd was ready to be at this point.

“You can always take Boyd to Jamaica again,” Stiles’s dad says.

“I will,” Stiles says with another grin, “It’s always hard to go spend time on a tropical island where everyone absolutely adores your kid.”

Johnny and Carl both smile at Stiles, and Stiles sneaks a look at Derek, who’s frowning at him for some reason. 

“The kids are adjusting to the move all right then?” Carl continues the conversation with Stiles.

“Boyd is having some problems, but your Isaac seems to be on the lookout for him,” Stiles says. “I think that they secretly want to be brothers.”

“Isaac wants everyone who’s not Jackson to be his brother,” Derek finally joins the conversation.

They all laugh at that, and Stiles takes a sip of the beer that Carl hands him. They pause in their conversation only to watch seven kids streaking out of the house after an older man, who is laughing at them all trying to catch him.

“I don’t know how he does it,” Carl watches his brother Peter after a while. 

“The man owns a toy store,” Derek smirks, “What do you expect?”

Carl shakes his head. “I never thought that store would work out. Magic of the Internet, huh?”

“Peter creates his own toys,” Johnny explains to the blank look on Stiles’s face. “He sells them for a pretty high dollar on the Internet, and he has a little shop in town. He carves dollhouses and wooden cars, wooden games and puzzles. Rich people are mad for a custom Peter Hale creation.”

Stiles smiles. “That’s nice,” he says, and he really means it. 

Dinner is a boisterous affair. The kids have obviously bonded, and a war has started between the girls and the boys. Stiles is impressed with Derek’s ability to snatch ballistic peas from the air before they hit intended targets, although it seems to be a trait shared by the older Hales. Stiles is a little ashamed that his kids are mostly the perpetrators, although after a while they seem to lose interest in the other kids and shoot it at the Hales to watch them calmly snatch the flying vegetation without dropping conversation a bit, and then all the kids are ushered into the living room to watch a video and play with Legos while the adults stay in the kitchen to eat chocolate torte and drink bitter coffee.

Stiles finds out that Derek’s wife Kate had left him just a couple of years ago, and that Laura’s husband was away on a business trip to Canada, and he wouldn’t return for a month or two. He finds out that Carl is retired from whatever line of work he used to do, and that he enjoys watching his grandchildren as his kids go off to work. Laura is a high school teacher and Derek has followed in his Uncle Peter’s footsteps with woodworking, although he mainly sticks to furniture and cabinetry. 

It’s over too soon, and Stiles and his father pack up the food before they carry the sleeping children out to the minivan, and load everything up. They exchange promises with the Hales to do it again, and Stiles tries to apologize for his children’s behavior but it’s waved away as children being children and not actual agents of the Devil trying to invade and corrupt their own children. Stiles can appreciate the sentiment, but he doesn’t feel better about it until Derek tells him that he’s secretly worried that Stiles thinks that his kids have had a bad effect on his own children. 

They decide to let the kids play together in the park tomorrow, exchange phone numbers, and Stiles drives away.

“That went well,” Johnny says to Stiles.

“I think so,” Stiles says, glancing in the rearview mirror to ensure that his kids were sleeping. “Thanks for the head’s up with Derek,” he glares at his dad.

Johnny chuckles. “You wouldn’t have believed me even if I tried to tell you.”

“But dad,” Stiles protests. “You could have tried.”

“What would I have said? Oh, by the way, their son is probably just your type?”

“Something,” Stiles frowns, “Make sure his first impression of you isn’t you about falling on your face in front of him? Doesn’t matter, he probably doesn’t swing my way.”

Johnny frowns. “No, and he’s still pretty torn up over Kate even if he did. He was over the moon for her.”

“Over the moon,” Stiles laughs, “Really dad? Who says that anymore?”

“It’s accurate,” Johnny says, chuckling at some inside joke a little. Stiles doesn’t get it, but he decides not to press. He and his dad had come to an agreement, somewhere in the middle of high school, that sometimes there are things that Stiles just doesn’t need to know about. The tone of voice his dad just used indicates that now is one of those times.

Stiles doesn’t know where it started, or what changed between his dad and him around his sophomore year of high school. He hates it, sure, whatever this is, this secrecy between them. He wishes that it weren’t there, that they could talk about it, but Stiles was never even brave enough to ask. It had started when his dad started coming home from work for a month straight, not saying a word, and simply drinking until he fell asleep. He quit before Stiles was a Senior, but it had lasted long enough. The one and only time Stiles had been brave enough to ask what happened, his dad choked out Stiles’s mother’s name and had started crying like Stiles had taken red hot pokers to his squishy insides, so Stiles never touched it again. Stiles would never touch anything that hurt his father.

Lugging the kids back inside the house was first priority, and Stiles busied himself with pushing them into their beds and taking their shoes off. He figures that it’s more effort than it’s worth to try to pry them out of their clothing and into pajamas, because that way lay potential for them to wake up and then run around the house until all the kids were up, and it would be impossible to get them back to sleep before two, and then tomorrow would be cranky kid national holiday. Stiles settles into his own room after taking a long, hot shower and distracts himself from thoughts of Derek Hale, although it’s a little more difficult than he would have liked to think it should have been.

Saturday dawns bright and early, and for once his kids don’t wake him up first thing. Stiles wakes at ten with a moment of panic, and is strangely weirded out that his children are behaving, sharing the television set with bowls containing the remnants of cereal and milk bits lying next to them. Stiles wonders what they’re up to because they’re never this quiet, ever, but they’re cuddling in front of the television watching cartoons and not destroying anything at all.

The kitchen is a little messy, and there are some toys scattered about the house, and the doors all seem to be still locked, so Stiles tries to convince himself that they aren’t hiding anything at all. 

He is almost startled by the phone in his pocket vibrating, and he reads the text from Derek.

-Are your kids behaving?-

-Yes. I assume yours, too?-

-I’m worried. What are they plotting?-

-Give me five minutes. I’ll figure it out.-

Stiles walks over to the children, who look up at him with very large, very innocent eyes. “Okay, what did you do?” he doesn’t even try for subtlety.

“Nothing,” Boyd says, glancing at Scott and Allison.

Scott has his innocent face on again. There is no other reason for Stiles to feel more panicked than that look alone. He crosses his arms in front of his chest and just stares at his children.

“When are we going to the park, daddy?” Allison asks, and her eyes are opened very wide. She would be a terrible poker player, Stiles decides. 

“You really want to play with the Hale kids that badly?”

“And Lydia,” Allison bites her lower lip. 

Stiles decides that there is no other way to find out what the kids are up to unless he has more information, so he sighs. “Go put your clothing on. Boyd, please don’t make any more suggestions to Scott about what you think he should wear, and don’t tell him that putting his clothing on backwards will ward off the evil eye again.”

The kids scramble upstairs, leaving Stiles in a wake of confusion. 

-Operation Discover Treason is a fail. Any luck on your end?-

-They just really want to go to the park. They’re definitely up to something.-

-We should be on the lookout. Something wicked this way comes.-

Stiles loads the kids up, and wonders if he couldn’t just pull a Romney and tie them to the roof of the car. He isn’t sure what they are plotting, and he isn’t sure that he is prepared for whatever nefarious scheme they were cooking up.

His kids were planners. Or. Allison was a planner, and Scott was more than willing to let her take the blame for whatever shenanigan she cooked up. Boyd would sometimes participate, but he had common sense, something Stiles’s biological children severely lacked. Stiles desperately hoped that Boyd would rub off on Scott and Allison a little, but he held little to no expectations for it. He decided to trust that Boyd wouldn’t let the twins and the Hales get too far out of control.

He pulls up next to Derek’s black SUV, and his kids scramble out of the van to meet the Hales and their cousin in the middle of the playground. He and Derek were surrounded by lots of mothers, many of whom were checking Derek out, and they settle on top of a picnic table with a full view of the playground. “Boyd at least has common sense,” Stiles says.

“Jackson is a little evil,” Derek confesses. “Lydia can usually hold him in check, but Jackson… Isaac and Erica are too soft hearted to do anything really bad.”

“What’s the likelihood of death by immolation, inhalation, suffocation, or firearms?” Stiles asks Derek to predict their chances.

“Sixty to… seventy-three percent,” Derek makes up random numbers, keeping up with Stiles in a way that only Mary had done before. Stiles tries not to concentrate on the way his heart flutters at the comparison.

“Do you think they planned this last night, or maybe they got a hold of a phone this morning?” Stiles continues asking to distract himself.

“Last night, definitely,” Derek says. “What I’m worried about is the fact that we left them with Peter, and he has to have had something to do with this.”

Stiles didn’t figure that into the equation. He blinks a few times. He stares at his children, playing quietly with Derek’s and Derek’s niece, and is completely unaccustomed to the lack of potential death and dismemberment exhibited in the children’s behavior. There isn’t even any screaming or hitting or hair pulling going on. “Okay, I’m officially scared.”

“This scares you?” Derek looks over at him, and Stiles tries not to be attracted to him. He really, really tries.

“My children not trying to find out if there is a way they can rip body parts off of each other? Yes, this is terrifying.”

Derek laughs, and Stiles absolutely loves watching the man laugh. They’re quiet together for a moment, studying their spawn and trying to figure out what’s going on. “That’s it,” Derek announces, pulling his phone out. “I’m calling Peter.”

Stiles watches as Derek pushes a button for speed dial, and waits as he holds the phone up to his ear.

“He’s not answering,” Derek growls, shoving the phone back into his pocket. He has to lift his hips off the picnic table to get it into his jeans, and Stiles swallows and looks back at the kids, reminding himself to not think bad thoughts. He’ll do that later, concentrate on the way that Derek’s tee-shirt lay flat on his stomach, his hipbones poking through it and the way that his jeans were just a little bit too tight across his groin. Right now, there are more pressing matters.

The men watch their children playing quietly and nicely with each other for another two hours, and then they load them up into their vehicles. “We’ll have to do this again,” Derek says, “after I talk with my uncle.”

Stiles nods. “Sounds good.”

Later that night, the kids are getting whiny again and Stiles almost wishes that he could have the Hale kids and Lydia come over to see if they can keep up being good for just a little while longer. Boyd’s complaining about not having Isaac over, and Allison is whining about not having her girls to play with, and Scott is just trying to tie Allison’s hair in knots, and then Boyd and Scott start wrestling, and Allison has dumped the entire container of bubble bath into the dishwasher, and then while Stiles is trying to clean that up Scott tries to ride one of the cardboard boxes left over from their move down the stairs, and all of that ends up with Stiles and two cranky kids waiting in the emergency room while Scott gets stiches in his forehead. 

-My kids are acting normally again.- Derek texts Stiles.

-What did they do?-

-Jackson dared Isaac to try and light an entire book of matches on fire at the same time. I almost cried in relief as I sprayed the trash can down with the hose outside and had to open all the windows in the house.-

-We’re in the emergency room. My kids are normal again, too.-

-Any limbs needing amputation?-

-No. Scott is getting stiches, and then we’re getting out.-

-Is it possible our kids are just a good influence on each other?-

-No. My kids are not a good influence on anyone. They would make angels weep in frustration.-

-You still suspect treason?-

-I know it’s treason. I just have to figure out the purpose.-

-I don’t know. We should get them together again, just to be sure.-

Stiles pauses. Is Derek angling for another bonding moment for the kids, or is it possible that he might want to see Stiles again? No, Stiles knows he’s being silly. He doesn’t care though, as he remembers the look on Derek’s face when he was laughing. –Bring them over to my house tomorrow afternoon. Let’s test this.-

Sunday afternoon is another day of blessed peace, and Derek and Stiles are staring as their children make masks out of construction paper and grocery bags. Stiles frowns, because they’re not even trying to cut each other’s hair off with the scissors. Scott even happily passes the glitter to Jackson when he asks, and doesn’t dump it all over the other boy’s head, as Stiles had seen him do on multiple occasions when he was playing with friends in New York.

The kids are being really good though, and Stiles had stayed up really late with Scott. The couch that he and Derek are sitting on is really comfortable, and Stiles has to pinch himself a few times to stay awake. He wants to enjoy this time with Derek, because he likes seeing him, but his eyes are just so heavy and he really hasn’t gotten enough sleep for almost a year since Mary died, and he finds his eyes slowly closing.

By the time he opens his eyes again, he’s staring right at Derek’s neck. He knows its Derek’s neck because he might have inadvertently memorized the way his stubble patterned around the edge of his jaw. He’s kind of aware that he’s draped over Derek, and that Derek is holding him tightly against his chest, and he really does not want to move just yet.

Except he really doesn’t know Derek at all, and they just met three days ago, and why oh why are his children being quiet? 

Stiles tries to sit up, but Derek growls and holds him closer, and Stiles tries not to concentrate on how their bodies are lined up and pressed against each other because the results from that would be embarrassing. “Derek,” he whispers, trying to figure out if the man was awake or not.

“You’ll distract them,” Derek whispers back. “Just go back to sleep.”

“What…”

“If you keep moving, you’ll fall off the couch. The kids are watching a movie, so go back to sleep until its over.”

Stiles is still really tired, but he isn’t sure how he’s supposed to be expected to pass out again when he’s this close to Derek Hale. Close enough to feel how warm he is, and how safe Stiles feels in his arms, and how weird it is for Stiles to feel safe in this man’s arms, and before he knows it his eyes are shut again.

-Sorry about tonight.- Stiles finally texts Derek later that evening.

-It’s okay. I think I may have figured something out.-

Stiles panicks. –Look, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I’m sorry that I sprawled out all over you, that couldn’t have been comfortable.-

-What?-

-I didn’t mean to get that snuggly. I just do it sometimes when I feel too comfortable. I’m sorry you had to put up with that.-

-I think that I figured out something about our kids. What are you talking about?-

Stiles blushes. Shit, of course they were talking about their kids. –Just that I’m sorry for falling asleep on you, like, literally on you, like that. What did you figure out about the kids.-

-They said that Peter told them about the Brady Bunch.-

Stiles blinked a few times. He rubbed his eyes, and stared at his phone. –I don’t get it.-

-I think that they think if they act good around us, they can be brothers and sisters and their cousin, like the Brady Bunch.-

-Wouldn’t that require us to get married?- Stiles almost erases it before he sends it, but he needs the clarification.

-That’s the point of the show, isn’t it? Two people getting married and having six kids in one house?-

-Okay, well… I’ll talk with my kids about it.-

-No.-

-What?-

-I mean, why? We can use this to our advantage.-

Stiles blinks a few times. –What?-

-Stiles, our kids are being good. I don’t know about you, but this has never happened to me before. Let’s ride it out a little longer to see how long it lasts.-

-You want to fake date so that our kids will behave?-

-Yes.-

-You want to manipulate our children by letting them think that they could get a whole family if they behaved.-

-Yes.-

Stiles stares at his phone, a slow smile spreading across his face. –I think I love you.-

-I think I love myself at this point.-

-You should. When is our next date?-

-Tomorrow, after school. We’ll take the kids to the park again, or something.-

So, maybe the combination of Stiles and Derek isn’t the most… holiest of unions, but they make it work. At least three times a week, they let their kids get together and play, and enjoy the few hours of peace they find in each other’s companies. They don’t tell their parents or Laura or Peter what’s going on, and they smirk to themselves when one of them comments in front of their children about how happy they are to see that Stiles and Derek are getting along so well. 

And if, occasionally, Stiles goes home from their pseudo-dates and frantically wanks himself off to relieve some of his tension, no one else has to know about that. It’s necessary, because the amount of attraction he feels for Derek Hale is not going away in the least. 

Derek’s not really great at not being sexy. He doesn’t dress provocatively or anything, his wardrobe consists mostly of jeans, tee-shirts, and working boots. He and Stiles don’t really do anything but sit around and talk and stare at their children. There is nothing at all special in the way that they treat each other, except for the few times that they sleep around each other, because that’s not normal bro behavior. Stiles never says anything about it, but he sleeps better around Derek even if he’s not wrapped up in his arms like that first time. And any sleep at all when you’re the father of three children under the age of ten is a blessed event.

School ends, and the summer leads to more kid time, and therefore Stiles and Derek are practically living out of each other’s pockets. In fact, there’s only about six days that entire summer where Stiles and Derek didn’t seek each other out, although Stiles can’t figure out what made Derek stay away those nights. 

By the time school starts, Stiles picks up Derek’s kids and niece for the first day. He wonders what he’s going to do with all seven of them in his van, but the older kids take off on their own and Stiles escorts the twins and Erica to kindergarten. Erica clings to him the hardest, scared to let him go, and Stiles reassures the little girl that if she needs him all she has to do is call. He makes sure the kindergarten teacher, Mrs. McCall, has both his, his father’s, and Derek’s phone numbers, and she finally shoos him out of the classroom. 

Stiles thinks it might have been weird that he and Derek had put each other down as emergency contacts for each other’s kids, but he doesn’t dwell on it too much. Best friends do that all the time, he reassures himself. That’s what he and Derek are: best friends.

The job at the paper is going well. For the most part, Beacon Hills is a sleepy little town, and the most investigating that Stiles has to do is reporting on weddings and funerals, with the occasional political article that he has to write. He doesn’t do a single one for his dad, thinking it would be unprofessional what with elections coming up, although there are a few articles written to the editor that they would like Stiles’s opinion on his dad running for re-election for sheriff. Especially since Derek’s ex-brother-in-law is running against him.

Mrs. Hale says that Stiles can stay out of the election for sheriff campaign. She doesn’t seem too fond of Chris Argent, although that bias is kept out of the paper to avoid angrier letters than the ones they are already getting. Argent seems to be cut-throat though, running a smear campaign about funding and favoritism and cronyism. Argent is getting support from the elderly, who are interested in his views about how wild the youth of Beacon Hills are, riding their skateboards on sidewalks and showing no respect for front lawns and even smoking pot behind the alley of one of the local clubs. Stiles wants to protest that this kind of thing happens in every town, but he stays quiet. He has a responsibility as a reporter and a reputation to uphold. He is not a journalist, no matter how much people wish that he was.

Stiles doesn’t realize how much bad blood had been created between the Hales and the Argents about the divorce until one Friday night, when he and his father show up for their bi-monthly get together at the Hale house, when they find Argent there already.

“You are showing favoritism by not letting Stiles write about it,” Chris is saying to Mrs. Hale. “The people in this community respect his opinion, and everyone knows that he won’t lie just to get his dad re-elected. You should force him to write about it, force him to talk about the issues that concern the people of this town.”

“Mr. Argent, Stiles has requested that he not be included in the campaign for his father’s re-election. I cannot force any of my reporters to do anything.”

“He’s committing a dereliction of his duty,” Chris responds to Mrs. Hale in such a way that Stiles walks straight through the front door instead of lingering outside the open window with his dad and his children.

“My duty, Mr. Argent,” Stiles almost spits, “is to this community. I keep them informed, and give them honest truth. Honestly, you do not want me writing about this campaign, because you will not come out on top.”

“Why are you at the Hale house?” Argent is honestly surprised.

“Our families are old friends,” Stiles says. “We spend time together, like friends do.”

Chris’s eyes narrow as he sees the way that Stiles’s children walk up the stairs like they’re more than used to this house, on their way to see Derek’s and Laura’s children. “You know the Hales well?”

“Like I said, we’re old friends,” Stiles said. “My mother and Mrs. Hale were close friends, and my father is still friends with Mr. Hale.”

“You’re part of the Pack?” Argent spits out.

Stiles is not stupid, but he has no idea what Argent is talking about. “Pack?” he asks, unfamiliar with that term in context of human relationships. 

Chris looks at Stiles like he’s lying. Stiles has no idea what he’s talking about.

“That’s enough, Chris,” Mrs. Hale says. “Stiles is not going to do an article on you or his father, and you should be happy that he’s professional enough to want to do so. I’ve half a mind to let him do one, anyway. It’s time you were on your way, because the children are here and it is time to eat.”

Chris glares at her a little longer, and then he studies Stiles before he heads out of the house. Stiles can’t help it; the man’s eyes give him the goosebumps. 

“What did he mean by Pack?” Stiles could hear the capital letter in there. 

“It’s one of those things, Stiles,” his dad says, not quite meeting his eyes.

Stiles is getting pretty tired about not being let in on this secret, but he takes a deep breath, holds in, and then sighs. 

Dinner is great, as always. Stiles and Derek go out back after Peter has taken the kids and Stiles sits in Derek’s shop while Derek is working on an order of cabinets for people in town. 

“I know it’s some kind of secret,” Stiles starts to say, “and dad doesn’t want me to know. I haven’t asked questions at all, but I’d like to know what Argent meant by Pack.”

“Sometimes it’s better if you don’t know, Stiles,” Derek says.

Stiles doesn’t like this at all. He hates being left out, hates that there’s something about Derek and his family that he isn’t trusted with. He knows all sorts of things about them, the good things and the bad things, but it’s like he can’t be trusted with something that Argent knows that Stiles has no clue about. 

“Are you part of a gang?” Stiles asks. “Is that what I can’t know about?”

Derek laughs a little bit, but he doesn’t answer the question. He turns on an electric sander, and for a while neither of them can talk.

“Is it why Kate left?” Stiles sips at a beer that he brought out with him.

“Yes,” Derek says.

“Do you think that I’ll leave if I find out?” Stiles wants to know.

Derek doesn’t quite meet his eyes, but he puts down the sander and studies the cabinet door that he just created. “Yes.”

Stiles is surprised. There are so many other questions that have come up now that Derek has pretty much confirmed he’d rather have Stiles around than tell him something about himself and his family. Stiles thinks before asking another question, because that question might make Derek uncomfortable. He likes their relationship where it is because he cannot hope for more, so he doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or put up walls between them, but the fact that Derek would rather keep secrets than let Stiles go makes him think that he might actually care about Stiles more than for the fact that their children act like civilized human beings around each other.

Derek takes out a sealant and the fumes make Stiles head a little dizzy for a moment as he starts stroking it onto the wood.

When Stiles was younger, he would have pushed his friend into revealing his secret. Stiles isn’t young enough to insist on information from his friends now, he understands that sometimes there are secrets that must be kept. He wants to push, but he tries so hard to exhibit some self-control. “Derek, there’s not a whole lot in this world that could make me leave you at this point. You’re my best friend.”

Derek pauses in his brush work, but he doesn’t look up at Stiles. 

“It would destroy my kids to take them away from yours, I think,” Stiles hopes that he doesn’t sound like it’s because he’s in love with Derek or anything, because that would be too close to the truth. But maybe a little truth would siphon the well or something. “And I don’t think I could deal with being not friends with you all that well, either.” Stiles heart is pounding so hard that he’s surprised that Derek can’t hear it.

Derek looks up at him, and Stiles thinks that for the first time his eyes look naked. He’s never looked at Stiles that way before, and there are so many emotions in them that Stiles can’t name them without letting himself hope for just a little more.

Someone’s child yelling, “Daddy!” had them both running out of the shop, and Stiles picked up Allison who has skinned her knee. Derek turns around to go finish the cabinet and put the stain back up, so Stiles walks into the kitchen with a crying Allison, putting a band-aid on her knee and sending her back out before helping his boss out with the dishes. 

He’s quiet, and it’s something that Mrs. Hale isn’t used to. “Did you and Derek have a fight?”

“What?” Stiles asks. “No, no, it’s nothing like that.” 

“It makes me so happy to see the two of you together,” Mrs. Hale says. “I think you make a good couple.”

“What?” Stiles asks, surprised. “We’re not, Derek’s not… what?”

“Blended families are hard, but I think that you’ve displayed that you can more than handle it with the way that you treat Boyd’s dad. The kids have already told me you two have wedding plans, how are those coming along? Is there anything I can help you out with?”

Stiles is flabbergasted. He really wants to say something, but he isn’t sure what it should be. Of course, at that moment, Derek walks into the kitchen to find Stiles gaping at his mother like a fish.

“What’s going on?” Derek asks.

“We’re talking about your wedding,” Mrs. Hale says. “I would have rather heard about it from you than from the kids, but…”

“What wedding?” Derek asks, his eyebrows doing that thing that makes Stiles want to push the wrinkles between his nose down.

“Yours and Stiles…” Mrs. Hale says, but she looks between them for a moment. “You’re not getting married, are you?”

Derek is frowning at his mother, and Stiles’s mouth is still hanging open so it’s hard to talk that way.

“We’re not even dating, mom,” Derek says, glancing at Stiles.

“Oh, I just thought… well, silly me. I thought…”

“Derek’s not even bi,” Stiles says, “how could we date?”

“Derek’s…” Mrs. Hale’s eyes widen, “Oh. Oops.”

Derek is bi, Stiles realizes. Holy shit, Derek Hale is bi. 

“I just thought, since your dad told me that you were, and I knew that Derek was…” Mrs. Hale clears her throat a little bit, “oh look, I should go see if Peter needs help with the kids.” Mrs. Hale hightails it out of the kitchen.

Derek and Stiles stare at each other for a while, and Stiles swears that he can actually feel the tension in the atmosphere after getting outed by Derek’s mom. 

“It’s not like it has to change anything,” Stiles says, “just because we’re both bi doesn’t mean that we’re attracted to each other or anything. We’re still friends, right? We still… is this the secret? Is Pack some sort of derogatory term for bi? Because I’ve got to say, that doesn’t really explain…”

“You’re rambling,” Derek says.

“Yes, yes I am,” Stiles replies. “So good of you to notice. You can change the subject any time you want, you know, and I’d be completely comfortable with that…”

So Derek did change the subject. He asked about Allison’s knee, and Stiles and he fell back into the familiar pattern of talking about their kids. They finished cleaning up the kitchen and grabbed another beer, settling on the front porch to watch the kids being directed by Peter to rake up the piles and piles of leaves that the surrounding trees were shedding.

“So, your mom thought that we were actually dating,” Stiles broaches the subject again.

“Drop it, Stiles,” Derek says.

“No, this is kind of funny. Our families are incredibly supportive of our non-existent relationship.”

“Stiles…” 

“Did you know that a lot of people in town think we’re actually dating? I’m always getting asked how my boyfriend is doing.”

Derek just glares at Stiles.

“It could get awkward, you know. If we ever do start dating again,” Stiles says.

“Other people?” Derek asks. 

“Yeah,” Stiles says, swallowing. “When you get over Kate, and you know, start dating.”

Derek looks at Stiles like he’s trying to figure something out. “You’re over Mary?”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be over Mary,” Stiles says, “but I’m not going to stop a relationship if it happens. Mary will always be with me, but she wouldn’t want me to be alone.”

“I’m not dating again,” Derek declares. “I can’t do that to someone else.”

“You don’t have to date again,” Stiles says, “but I probably will.”

Derek swallows. “I know.”

“It’s not like we’ll stop being friends,” Stiles is trying to convince Derek. “We’re going to be friends no matter what, you know?”

Derek doesn’t say anything. Stiles knows it’s because of whatever secret he’s been hiding, and Stiles suddenly doesn’t want to know what it is that’s so bad that Derek won’t risk getting close to anyone else because of it. Stiles also knows that he and Derek will never happen because of it. He tries not to let that heartbreak show on his face, but from the way that Derek is looking at him he kind of thinks that he knows anyway. 

Johnny drives them home that night because Stiles might have had one or two too many beers. They go through their nightly routine, and Stiles waits until the house is quiet to let himself cry. Not having a relationship with Derek is worth having a cry over, and he decides to not hate himself over it. 

It turns out that it’s a good thing that Stiles has already told Derek that he’s going to date, because the very next day the guy in charge of the entertainment section, Danny Mahealani, asks him to go out to dinner and a movie with him. 

Stiles doesn’t tell anyone but his dad, who looks almost disappointed over the news. His dad tells Stiles that he’ll watch the kids while he and Danny go out, and Stiles thanks him as he gets ready for his date.

Danny is a great guy, sweet and interesting, and it doesn’t hurt that the man is gorgeous. Stiles really enjoys himself, and he can tell that Danny is having a great time, too. 

Stiles tells himself that he’s not cheating on Derek when Danny kisses him goodnight, but it’s hard to kiss back when he knows that he’d rather be kissing Derek. He can’t kiss Derek though, Derek doesn’t want him in that way, so he might kiss Danny back a little desperately.

“Sorry,” Stiles apologizes to the surprised look on Danny’s face. “It’s just… been a while.”

“It’s okay,” of course Danny says, “I understand. I don’t mind at all.”

Stiles thinks that he really means it, too. 

Stiles walks back into his house after he agrees with Danny that they definitely need to do that again sometime soon. He checks on the kids to make sure that they’re sleeping, and then falls onto his bed completely exhausted. He tells himself that he’s not thinking about Derek at all, but he knows it’s a lie. 

Stiles is trying to corral his kids in the morning. He told them about his date with Danny and they’ve been acting like demons ever since. He was in the middle of forcing Allison and Scott to wash their crayon drawing off the walls while trying to unclog the toilet from the wads of tissue paper that Boyd had thrown into it when his phone rings.

“I thought we were going to be friends?” Derek greets him.

“What?” Stiles asks.

“Don’t friends tell each other when they’re going out on a date?”

“Oh. Yeah, I just… I didn’t know how you were going to react.”

“I probably would have come over and helped you pick out something to wear, and then threatened Danny to treat you right,” Derek says.

Stiles actually knew that was how Derek was going to react, but it still didn’t stop his heart from breaking into a million pieces to hear him say it. 

“Did you think I was going to be jealous?” Derek asks.

“Of course not,” Stiles says, hoping it sounded like he was just having a casual conversation while he shoved the plunger into the toilet a few more time instead of trying not to cry. Derek being jealous would mean that Derek actually wanted Stiles for himself, and Stiles knew how much of a lie that was.

“I know you need to get out,” Derek says, “you probably need physical contact and stuff…”

“Emotional, too,” Stiles says, “I need someone to care about.”

Derek is quiet over that for a few seconds too long. “Yeah, I can see that in you. So, um, how did it go?”

“Dinner and a movie,” Stiles confesses. Why is it confessing? He has nothing to be ashamed of.

“So it was Danny?” Derek asks. “Mom says that he’s a good guy.”

“Yeah,” Stiles says, swallowing hard. “He’s a good guy.”

Derek is quiet for a little while longer. “You know, most guys I’ve been friends with talk a lot after they’ve been on a good date. Was it not good?”

Stiles watches the water draining out of the toilet, finally. “He kissed me. At the end.”

There’s silence on the other end of the phone, and Stiles thinks that he hears some kind of a crash.

“You okay man?” Stiles asks.

“Yeah, yeah,” Derek says, “Um, rats or something. Was it good?”

Stiles doesn’t know why Derek is asking, doesn’t know why he finds himself answering. “It was good,” he says, wondering when the Hale house got rats. He wonders if Derek is being jealous, but he knows that can’t be it because Derek doesn’t want him that way, not enough to tell him whatever secret drove him and Kate apart.

“Good, that’s good. It’s good that you’re… kissing Danny.”

“Yeah, it’s good,” Stiles says, lamely.

“Good,” Derek agrees. “Are you two planning on going out again?”

Is Derek punishing himself, really? Stiles doesn’t know what’s going on, but it sounds like Derek is punishing himself over Stiles’s date with Danny, and it’s punishing Stiles too. Maybe he should just tell Derek that most of the night Stiles was thinking about him, maybe he should just put it all out there so that Derek knows what’s going on in Stiles’s head. “Derek…”

“Oh, gotta go, Stiles,” Derek says, “Isaac just climbed a tree to get away from Jackson.”

“See you Friday,” Stiles says as Derek hangs up the phone. 

The week is long, and Stiles isn’t as eager to go out on another date with Danny when he offers Wednesday night. Conveniently, there’s a parent-teacher conference, and Stiles follows his kids around the school after meeting up with the Hales in the kindergarten classroom.

“You two have a beautiful family,” Mrs. McCall smiles at Derek and Stiles. “Erica talks about her daddies all the time.”

“What?” Derek asks, and Stiles wonders if it’s the first time anyone has confronted him with the fact that everyone thinks that they’re together.

“It’s good that you’re making it work for the kids,” Mrs. McCall says, “Kids need a stable home, and Erica talks about how much support she gets from her brothers and her step-brothers and step-sister. Allison is always checking in on her, and Scott defends her from Greenberg all the time. It’s not often that I’ve seen blended families work as well as yours does, your kids must respond positively to the love between you two.”

“We’re um, we’re not…” Derek starts to say.

Stiles cuts him cleanly off. “Thank you Mrs. McCall, we try.”

Mrs. McCall beams at them like they’re brilliant. 

Stiles turns to give a dirty look to his twins, but he missed Erica’s look of scheming. “Daddy,” she says, and immediately has Derek’s attention, “can’t you hold Stiles’s hand?”

Derek glares at Erica, but Stiles isn’t above playing dirty. He grabs Derek’s hand like it’s the most normal thing in the world and continues to speak with Mrs. McCall about the twins and Erica. He ignores Derek’s look of astonishment.

They go on to Isaac and Boyd’s classroom, still holding hands, and they talk with the teachers there some. It doesn’t take much more to get to Jackson’s class, and then they meet Laura coming out of Lydia’s classroom. She gives them a speculative look, and Stiles realizes that he’s still holding Derek’s hand. 

They drop each other’s hands like they’re playing hot potato, and Laura suggests they take the kids out to the pizza place.

Public eating is still something that the Stilinski kids are trying to acclimate to, and after a few hurried whispers between all of the children they sit and glare at Stiles.

“What?” Stiles asks.

“You cheated on daddy,” Jackson accuses him.

“What?” Stiles looks at his kids, trying to find out what they could have told the Hales.

“You cheated on Derek,” Boyd glares at him. “You’re not allowed to cheat.”

Stiles’s mouth flaps a few times. “Kids, your dad and I…”

“Stiles didn’t cheat,” Derek said, “He just went out to have some grown-up time with his new friend.”

Laura’s face has gone from absolutely confused, to sad, and then finally to angry. Stiles doesn’t know what to make of it.

“He can have grown-up time with you,” Erica crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at her father. The other kids immediately mimic her actions, and Stiles is bracing himself for a full-scale riot. He’s even more surprised when Laura follows suit.

“Derek, why aren’t you having… grown-up time with Stiles?” Laura asks bluntly.

“Derek doesn’t want me like that,” Stiles says. “And I’m allowed to go out on dates.”

“How can you not want daddy?” Boyd’s feelings are hurt, and Allison looks like she’s about to cry. Scott mostly looks confused.

“How can you not want Stiles?” Isaac asks, “he’d make the best step-daddy on the planet! He lets us play with glitter, and he doesn’t yell when we’re bad!”

Derek looks like he’s about to run.

“Kids, sometimes it doesn’t work out that way,” Stiles says, but he’s glaring at Laura, too. “Sometimes adults just don’t work that way. It’s okay, Derek and I are still best friends…”

Allison is crying, and Boyd is glaring, and Scott’s eyebrows are about to cross. “I thought you and Derek loved each other,” Scott whispers.

“We do,” Stiles says, “but it’s not that way…”

“Daddy, you smell like you love Stiles,” Erica cries with Allison.

“Erica,” Laura chides her niece, and the rest of the Hale kids look at her like she just stripped down naked in public. 

“She’s not lying,” Jackson defended his little sister. “Daddy smells like he’s in love with Stiles, and he has ever since Stiles first came over.”

“That’s enough, kids,” Laura says, looking somewhat panicked.

“Daddy smells happy around Stiles,” Isaac whined, his little fists clutching at the curls on top of his head.

“Eat your pizza,” Derek tells his kids, “and there will be no more discussing of the way that I smell in public, do you understand?”

Stiles gathers Allison up in his arms, and she cries into his neck. “I think that we should probably get going,” Stiles says, “it’s been a long day…”

Scott stands up in his chair. He glares at Derek, “You have to like my dad. He likes you, so you have to like him back. I know we’re bad kids, but we’ve been really good so that you’ll like us, too. Our dad is nice, and he smells good,” Scott glances at Jackson to make sure he got that right, “and he doesn’t ever yell at us. I don’t want anyone else in our family but you, Derek, and I don’t want any other brothers or sisters but Jackson and Isaac and Erica, and I don’t want any other cousin but Lydia. So you have to like my dad back.”

“This isn’t the way this works, Scott,” Stiles says sternly to his son. “Derek and I are friends, and regardless of how I feel about Derek, Derek wants to stay friends. You can’t order him to like me back anymore than he already does. Acting this way will only make Derek not want to be my friend anymore, and then we won’t see the Hales anymore because this will make Derek feel bad. We don’t want to make Derek feel bad because he doesn’t like me back, do we?”

“No,” Scott says, and he slowly sits back down in his seat. 

“Now, I know that you kids want your dad and I to be together so we can be a family…” Stiles starts to say.

“Like The Brady Bunch, like what Uncle Peter said…” Jackson says.

“But one day I’m going to meet someone else, and I might even get married. That doesn’t mean that your dad and I can’t still be friends and hang out together, okay?”

“But I want you to be my other daddy,” Isaac protested. “I want Boyd to be my brother.”

Stiles reaches out and pulls Isaac into his lap. He kisses the top of his curls and squeezes the little boy. “Look, honey, I’m going to love you no matter what, okay? You and Boyd can still be best friends, and Boyd can come over to your house whenever you want and you can come over to my house whenever you want.” 

Isaac snuggled into Stiles’s chest, but Boyd and Jackson both kept glaring at Derek. 

Stiles takes a deep breath to tell the kids off, but he glances at Derek before he does so, and Derek looks like he’s just been hit in the head with a big piece of wood. He goes over what he just said to the kids again in his mind, and he realizes that he just put everything out on the table. He could kick himself for that, but he isn’t sure that he knows what to say.

He calmly puts Isaac back down in the seat next to him. “We should go,” Stiles says, because all he wants to do is get out of the pizza place and run all the way back to New York. He can handle raising his kids by himself, he knows that he can get his old job back with no problem, and he was making almost six times as much money there so he could probably hire a nanny to help out with the kids. He knows he can’t stay around here anymore.

Derek’s kids are panicking, and his kids are practically vibrating with their friends’ emotions. “I’m sorry,” Stiles says, and he reaches into his pocket to pay for his family’s share of the pizza. He throws the money on the table and hoists Allison on his hip, snapping his fingers for Boyd and Scott to follow him. 

He isn’t sure how he makes it back to the house safely, and he could kick himself for letting his mouth get away from him like that. Now Derek knew for sure how Stiles felt about him, and there was no way they could go back to being friends now. It would be just too awkward, and Derek wouldn’t ever be able to trust Stiles to not be thinking about things like that when they were together. There was no way that they could ever just hang out again.

“I think that I’m going back to New York,” Stiles says to his dad as soon as the kids are asleep.

“What?” his dad asks, surprised. 

“I think that it’s time we got out of your hair, and they’re offering me a raise if I go back to the office,” Stiles says, and it’s true. They do want him back.

“Stiles,” his dad says, “If this is about Argent making problems for you at the paper…”

“No,” Stiles says, although that would be nice to get away from, too, “I just think that it’s time. I’m ready to get on with my life, to get out again and the kids will be fine…”

“The kids are doing really well here. They’ve made friends here, and it isn’t good to keep uprooting them and traveling…”

“It’ll be more permanent in New York,” Stiles assures his father. “I’m going to hire a nanny, which is probably what I should have done in the first place. I think this is the best plan…”

“Stiles, I thought you and Derek…”

“Derek doesn’t… he doesn’t trust me, dad. He doesn’t want me.”

Johnny is quiet, and Stiles watches his dad for a moment. 

“I’m sorry…” Stiles starts to say, but he’s cut off from his apology with his dad waving a hand in front.

His dad pulls out his cell phone and dials a number, and Stiles waits a while. “Carl,” his dad says, and Stiles can feel his eyes getting bigger. “I’m going to tell Stiles.”

Stiles can hear Mr. Hale’s voice on the other end, but he can’t make out what the man is saying.

“No, my son is talking about going back to New York because your son won’t tell him. Stiles needs to understand why. I’ve kept it from him for almost ten years now, and I’m not going to let it damage another relationship.”

Stiles can feel his heartbeat speeding up, and he kind of wants to go throw up. Whatever secret the Hales have, it has damaged a lot of relationships. His with his father, Derek’s with Kate, and now Derek’s with Stiles. “No, dad,” Stiles says, “I don’t want to know. Derek doesn’t want me to know, and in any case, if he did… he still wouldn’t want me.”

Johnny glares up at Stiles, his phone still held to his ear. “I’m going to tell him, and then you should probably make Derek come talk to him when I’m finished.” And with that his dad hangs up the phone.

Stiles sits back down at the kitchen table, staring at his dad. “Well?”

Johnny takes a deep breath. “You can’t go back to New York. You have no protection there. I kept asking you to come back after the twins were born, you remember?”

Stiles nods his head.

“Your mom and Mary didn’t just die because of some random happenstance, you know that, right?”

“I always thought it was strange that they went the same way,” Stiles says.

“I should have told you this earlier, but I know you. If you knew one secret, you’d keep digging until you knew everything, and that wouldn’t have been safe for you.”

Stiles bites his tongue, literally, and lets his dad keep talking.

“Your mother was… for lack of a better term, a healer. She didn’t study traditional medicine, she was magical. There were creatures who sought her out because of her knowledge. I thought you had figured it out when you brought Mary home to meet me, but Mary assured me that you had no idea. Boyd’s mother is exactly the same way, and so is his father. You probably have the same abilities, and maybe I should have encouraged that, but I didn’t want you to be in danger. Your children have the same abilities, the same potential…”

“We’re magic healers?” Stiles says dryly. “That’s the secret?”

“You can heal supernatural creatures,” Johnny said. “So supernatural creatures are attracted to your presence.”

“Super… what? Dad, c’mon. This…”

“Derek’s family swore to protect you when your mother died. All those attacks that happened in high school? There were groups of people who were interested in taking you for your own. Derek’s family protected you.”

Stiles is quiet, waiting for his dad to say, ‘just kidding!’ or ‘okay, what had really happened was…’ but he’s not doing it.

“You think that Allison will have the same powers as her mother and her grandmother?” Stiles said.

“And Boyd. And Scott. And you,” Johnny says.

“You think we need to stay around the Hales for protection?”

“Yes,” Johnny says. 

“And the Hales can protect us because…”

“The Hales are werewolves.”

Stiles waits for his dad to laugh now. He doesn’t. Stiles swallows, because he knows, he knows his dad isn’t lying. He knows that it makes perfect sense, the word ‘Pack’ and the kids talking about the way that Stiles and Derek smell, and the way that the kids are calm around each other, and the kids’ almost pathological need to be around each other all the time. 

“Kate left Derek because he’s a werewolf,” Stiles says.

“Kate left Derek because she couldn’t kill her children when she found out what they were. Kate didn’t know that Derek was a wolf, and her family is made up of hunters. They had retired because they didn’t want to hunt anymore, and Kate didn’t grow up with it. When she found out though, she couldn’t handle it so she left.”

Stiles nodded his head. “Okay then. That’s good to know.” He stood up and pushed his chair in under the table. “I’m still going to New York.”

“What?” Johnny asked.

“Derek doesn’t want me dad, and I think that I ruined our friendship tonight. I can’t hang around here…”

“But what about…”

“The werewolf stuff? Obviously, they have all that shit under control. They haven’t hurt me or my kids or anyone else, that I’m aware of. I’m totally okay with the werewolf shit. You don’t seem to be getting the point though, Derek doesn’t like me. I like Derek. I more than like Derek, actually, and he knows so we can’t hang out as friends anymore. It’s going to be awkward, and I don’t want to be around for that. I’ll make tons more money in New York, and yeah, it’s not the same as being here around you, around family, but Derek’s never going to feel comfortable with me here again. Jeez, priorities dad, come on!”

“You’re not freaking out about…”

“Should I? I’m magic or something, and he’s a werewolf or something, and should I freak out? I’m not a kid, and it might be the first time I’ve ever dealt with this, but let’s be realistic here. He doesn’t like me enough to tell me. So this whole secret thing on his side? Not that important; I’m never going to deal with it. I’m magic? I’ll find someone in New York to train me, or I’ll keep my job and never learn anything about it unless one of the kids wants to learn. I haven’t decided yet.”

“Stiles…”

“Good-night, dad,” Stiles said, the conversation over as far as he was concerned.

Yeah, he might be acting like a kid about the whole situation. Yeah, packing up and moving just because Derek didn’t like him was a stupid decision, uprooting the kids because he couldn’t deal with rejection was the height of stupidity. He was a better father than this, he liked to think, he was more caring…

It was just, the thought of having to live in the same town as Derek, knowing absolutely everything that he knew about him, knowing that it didn’t matter, and that Derek was just Derek and Stiles couldn’t even laugh with him anymore…

He heard a tapping at his window, and Stiles rolled over to see Derek crouching on his roof.

“What the hell,” Stiles says, getting up to let him in. “Are we in high school or something?”

“You had friends come through your window in high school?” Derek asks.

“Yes, we all got into each other’s rooms through our windows,” Stiles says, with that tone of voice that meant, ‘didn’t you?’.

“So, my dad told me that your dad told you,” Derek says, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at his feet.

“Seriously dude, we’re not in high school.”

“And my mom told me I had to come talk to you,” Derek continues, trying not to smirk.

“Oh my god,” Stiles says, throwing himself back down on his bed. “Look dude, I’m probably going back to New York. You don’t have to worry about it, okay?”

Derek looks up, and Stiles is a little shocked to see panic there in his face. “You’re leaving?”

“I thought that would make you happy, not having to deal with my crush…”

“You’re leaving because you think that I’m upset you have a crush on me?” Derek frowns at Stiles.

“Why else would I leave?” Stiles asks him.

“What exactly did your dad tell you?” Derek asks, completely confused.

“The whole magic/werewolf thing, the reason my mom and my wife died, why Kate left you…”

“And you think that I don’t want you to have a crush on me?” Derek asks, poleaxed.

“Obviously,” Stiles says. 

“Stiles, I’m a werewolf,” Derek says, as if Stiles is slow.

“Yeah, and I’m some kind of magic healer thing,” Stiles says.

“Stiles, I turn into a wolf on the full moon. I live in a pack, my family reunions sometimes end up bloody…”

“So… you want me to stick around for your family reunions and do whatever magicy healy thing that I can do? Just tell me when they are, I’ll come back.”

“Stiles, my family is filled with freakin’ werewolves!” Derek shouts.

“Don’t wake the kids up,” Stiles hisses. “Geez, you have no idea how hard it is to get them to go back to sleep.”

Derek is silent for just a moment. “You don’t care?”

“I care,” Stiles says, “I mean, I’d like to ask lots and lots of questions about it, but I already told you that no matter what I wouldn’t leave you for something like that. You don’t like me, Derek, not the way that I like you, and I can’t handle that.”

“Stiles,” Derek says, and Stiles looks up at him to find his eyes glowing a pale, ice blue. “You have no problems with me being a werewolf?”

“Should I?” Stiles asks, “I mean, it’s not like I have a base to reference how I should be reacting to this, but it’s you, you know? It’s your family, who I pretty much consider to be my family, and I trust you. I trust you around my children, I trust you around my father. I guess you’re some sort of tame werewolves or something, because if you were the killing kind there would have been news about it or my dad would have locked you all up, not hung out with your dad on Sunday afternoons to watch the game and then drag his son and his grandkids along out with him to their house on a weekly basis for months. Yeah, there’s stuff I don’t know, but I thought that you would tell me if you cared to, and you don’t, so it’s probably just best for me to leave.”

“You’re not leaving,” Derek declares.

“What?”

“You. Aren’t. Leaving,” Derek stalks closer to Stiles’s bed, and Stiles finds himself being pushed flat onto his back with Derek leaning over him.

“Derek?”

“I thought that you would run away because you thought we were monsters. I thought that you wouldn’t be able to handle what we are because humans just can’t…”

“Der…” Stiles tries to say, but then his mouth and tongue are being fucked by Derek’s mouth and tongue, and he knows when it’s time to shut up. Derek’s body is the perfect weight on top of his, and Stiles runs his fingers through Derek’s hair, spreading his legs to accommodate that body between them. Derek moans into his mouth a little, and it’s perfect, and everything that Stiles has been dreaming about these past few months.

“Daddy?” Allison opens his door, “I heard yelling…” the door opens a little wider, and Stiles sees his daughter smiling before she slams the door and yells, “Daddy and Derek are kissing on daddy’s bed!”

“I’m calling Isaac!” Boyd yells back.

“Go to bed!” Stiles and Derek yell together.


End file.
